


Sweet Dreams

by zillamoroll



Category: Castlevania (Cartoon)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Alucard Loves his Plush Wolf, Alucard Misses his Parents, Alucard is Fixing the Castle and is so Lonely, Alucard is Traumatized and Longs for Childhood, Alucard's Childhood Bedroom is an Entire Character, Childhood, Domestic, Dracula and Lisa are Loving Parents, Dracula is a Good Dad, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Season/Series 02, post-s2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:06:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23883487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zillamoroll/pseuds/zillamoroll
Summary: After being left alone in Dracula's ruined castle, Alucard finds it difficult to do anything while mourning. When he goes back into his childhood bedroom, though, he finally finds a sense of comfort.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 24





	Sweet Dreams

After many months, Alucard had finally returned home.

To say that he didn’t expect these to be the conditions in which he would be home again would be untrue. He had known since the painful loss of his mother that the equally painful loss of his father would be inevitable. He knew that he would never see his childhood home in the way it lived in his memories again. Despite expecting the ruins of his adolescence to bear a heavy weight, nothing in this world could have prepared him adequately enough to be alone in it. Alucard had spent the last year or so independently, and lonesomeness was hardly a concern to him during that time; when one is half Vampire, company isn’t made particularly easily. These days, though, spent unaccompanied in the castle, couldn’t feel bleaker to him. Crumbled walls built heaving wreckage of what once was the greatest beacon of love in his life. As he sighed in unison with the worn architecture, the son of Vlad Dracula Tepes finally tasted the bitterness of being truly alone.

Working a tender hand back into this place would be a feat, but it was one the Dhampir knew was written in his cards. A noble cause and a way to restore a semblance of kindness to his family name- he couldn’t think of a more meaningful project to take up. Nights came and left, though, without much of any restoration underway. As he ran his slender fingers along surfaces, retracing their history, his heart weighed and Alucard found himself feeling incapable of taking this on.

Dawn and dusk muddied into each other, and soon weeks rolled through unnoticed- mourning had taken Alucard and swallowed him whole. He spent what seemed like ages pacing through the castle, replaying memories in his mind on an endless loop. Around his empty home he wandered, day in and day out, chasing the spectres of his past room by room in a spiralling routine. Libraries, staircases, washrooms, all serving countless measurements of loss. Those halls were once imaginary adventure roads for running up and down during play. This study was once where his mother fixed her gaze to books and taught a young, curiously hopeful Adrian of the Earth’s wonders. That drawing room was where his father sat him, his precious son, atop his shoulders and first told him about the beauty of the night. _His father…_

Once again, he faced his childhood bedroom. He hadn’t entered the room since his return, but had ended up standing in front of it many times, frozen like a pup afraid of his own shadow. Alucard’s stomach churned remembering his last encounter beyond the door. He could once again feel the weight of his father’s final breaths, hollowly slumped over him as a ragdoll would. The tin of blood, _his own father’s blood_ , flooded his nostrils, and the heavy stake torn from his bedpost was clutched in his trembling hands. Shivers coursed through his limbs and clamminess set in- Alucard may have been a grown man, but in this doorframe he lost himself, feeling the helplessness of being the boy he once was take over him. Bearing this was too much, and he wrenched himself to turn away like he always did as of late. The ghost of this bedroom clung to his back as a cruel reminder of the horrors that lived within those walls.

Tonight though, another sensation beckoned him. As he started away from the room, the child inside of him pleaded for him to come back. Alucard knew then that tonight had to be the point where he stopped walking away from it- from walking away from himself.

Gingerly, he pressed his palm to the dark wooden door. It gave without resistance, swinging open to eagerly show itself to him. Reflexively he winced in fear, locking his eyes shut as if expecting a monster to be waiting for him- but after taking his first steps inside, he opened his eyes and faced it.

Of course, there was no monster looming inside of the room. Disheveled furniture and askew paintings lined its edges, but despite this, there was a peace there. Dull evening light touched the room’s contents as if giving them a warm stagelight. Toys and books were where he had left them all those years ago, and Alucard softened as he picked a stuffed wolf from a crate. His boyhood bed miraculously remained mostly tidy, though a bit dusty, and as he drew closer to it, he felt himself grow small. The bed creaked a bit under him, but taking a seat on it filled him with more comfort than he had felt in some time. 

As he settled back, he was five years old again, his name was Adrian Tepes, and the stars painted on his ceiling above twinkled in his eyes. Adrian remembered watching his mother paint them for him, while his father held the ladder in place to make sure she was steady. He could see the love in their eyes, for each other and for him, and could hear their talking of which constellations to plot, the familiar sounds blanketing over him. Soon the vision of his parents melted into one of just his father, sat at his bedside. Dracula was a historically harsh man, but he loved and protected his own fiercely. The only two things in this world that granted him permission to be soft were his beautiful Lisa, and his little golden-haired boy. Replaying to Adrian now was one of the many, many times in which his doting father tucked him in to slumber for the night.

-

Adrian gazed up at his father from his bed. Late night was beginning to fall, and Adrian felt his lids growing heavier by the second. His father’s hands lifted the blanket folded at the bed’s foot, unfurled it, and gently pulled it over top of him. Then, they pushed the edges of the blanket tightly underneath him, down his sides, beneath his feet, and folded the top edge right below his chin.

“Shall we send you to sleep, little one?”

“Not without a story first, Papa.”

“A story for you, of course, how could I forget? Now tell me, what kind of story would you like tonight?”

“Mm… Maybe one ‘bout him.”

Adrian held out his favorite gray wolf plush and looked at his father with sleepy, yet eager eyes. It had been fashioned by his parents’ own hands, out of rabbit fur, adorned with glass eyes, and stuffed with rice. Dracula had told stories about the toy wolf many times before, and was always ready to make up another tale to send his son to sleep with.

“Once, long ago, there was a little wolf pup, living happily in his den alongside his mother and father. …”

Upon the story’s completion, Adrian held to the last threads of awakeness just barely. Dracula lovingly touched his hand to Adrian’s head, giving his hair a light tousle and then his cheek a pet.

“Good night, my shining constellation. When the evening is upon us tomorrow, I will see you again. Rest well, and have pleasant dreams of brave wolves.”

“Nigh’ night, Papa.”

Before leaving to start his night, Dracula leaned down like he always did and kissed his son on the head.

“I love you, Adrian.”

“Love you too, Papa.”

In present times, Alucard felt himself drifting off soundly in time with this scene from his younger years. Curled into himself on the small wooden bed, the blonde man was in that moment also a boy- and he slept soundly for the first time in weeks.

-

All too soon, morning light streamed through the windows, dancing overtop gold ribbons of his hair and the angular features of his face. The Dhampir stirred, stretching his legs as much as he could in the bed, and gave a restful yawn. Lashed eyes fluttered open, and as he awoke, Alucard grew a bit disoriented. How long had he slept? His back was stiff from tucking his lankiness underneath himself, and as he continued waking up the parts of his body, he noticed that his arms had been curled tightly around the dusty wolf plush since he had drifted off.

Tears welled up and pooled in the corners of his eyes, and he drew the plush to his lips to give it a kiss. “Old friend, I am sorry for what you were exposed to all those weeks ago. I promise, I will make this up to you.”

Alucard looked about him, at the room he both grew up and broke down in. It really was looking quite shabby after years of being unattended and especially after recent events. Sighing to himself, he pondered a new thought. “Wouldn’t it be pleasant if this room, at the very least, was fixed up and comfortable again?” He glanced over to the oval portrait of his late parents and the infant he used to be. “Would that finally bring you two peace?” Their faces were all so pleasant, so full of love, in the little painting. “Would it finally bring me peace?”

-

Channelling his energy into restoring the room seemed to be exactly what Alucard needed to help him get by. There were many things that just needed some straightening up, so he spent his morning taking note of and delegating these tasks. The walls would need a cleaning and paintings would need rehanging. Perhaps a fresh set of curtains for the windows, and a thorough dusting would be good over the shelves and surfaces. Finally, as his eyes rested on the bed, his heart sank. The bed was missing a post, he sadly recalled, and would need to be given a replacement. This could be done later on though, and looking over the bed once more, Alucard knew what would be easier to focus on for today. He took a step towards the bed and gave the bedding a small sniff- it didn’t smell unpleasant, but it could definitely use a freshening up. Atop the bed’s pillow sat the wolf, almost looking expectant. “All right, you too, little guy,” he said to it, and carried it in the blankets downstairs to the kitchen.

Laundering his blankets and giving the wolf plush a gentle bath was something he found especially cathartic. He ran his soapy hands over its fur, helping its muzzle greyed with dust become white again. He cradled the wolf and poured warm water over it, taking care while bathing it as if it were a real pup. Its dark glass eyes glinted in the early afternoon sun, as if to thank Alucard for the overdue attention. Once laundry was cleaned, he brought it outside, fashioned a clothesline out of rope, and carefully put the bedding and his old friend out to dry.

When evening came and he was spent from tidying, the young Dhampir retrieved his laundry. He ascended the castle stairs with it in tow, returned it to the tiny bed, and made it neat. The freshly made bed was a happy sight for his tired eyes, so he sat upon it for the second evening in a row, comforted and safe. In his arms again was the toy wolf. “It wouldn't be kind of me to leave you alone like before,” he murmured to it, “So it would be best of me to keep you company again tonight.” Alucard relaxed back onto his pillow, tucking his knees to his body and climbing underneath the blanket. He stroked his plush’s soft fur and clutched it to his chest while he looked up at those painted constellations. Alucard became smaller and sleepier by the moment, leaving all traces of his mourning and tragic reality behind him, and it was almost as if he had never left home.

“Do you know why I love the night so much, Adrian?”

“Nuh-uh, why’s that?”

“Because nighttime leaves the world quiet enough for me to hear the most important thoughts. Thoughts that remind me of how much you and your mother mean to me.”

-

In this old castle, many things were left broken and in shambles. So much work lied ahead for Alucard, work that was embedded with grief. He knew it wouldn’t come easily, and that he would never be able to fully rid himself of these painful memories. This week he had spent every night in the small bedroom, working and sleeping. Putting the finishing touch to his laboring for the room, Alucard took the new bedpost he carved and affixed it to the broken footboard. Tears stung his eyes and slid down to his chin.

“I miss you, Father.”

The refreshed bedroom was beautiful, and moonlight peeked through between the new curtains he had made. Twinkling stars were embroidered on them, to match his parents’ ceiling mural.

“I hope I’ve made you and Mother proud.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone, I hope you enjoyed this fic! ^___^ This was my first time really finishing any piece of story/writing I've ever made for fun, so I'm a little shy about sharing. This was really soothing for me to work on though, and I want to hopefully be able to provide some of that comfort for someone else.
> 
> I love this show so much, and watching it during this current pandemic has given me a lot of happiness to fixate on. I love Alucard and his complicated relationship with his parents and especially Dracula, so I really wanted to explore the softer side of that dynamic. 
> 
> Feel free to let me know if you enjoyed this fic. I would love to write more in the future, but like I said I am a bit shy.
> 
> Thank you! Happy reading! :3


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